The Emperor's Blades
by wordbearer
Summary: Chaos is all pervasive. The warriors of the Ordo Malleus must seek out and destroy all those who aid the Great Enemy. Warhammer 40k story.
1. Confrontations in the Dark

Haven't got any reviews to date on my other story, so here is some of my Daemonhunters fiction. I don't own 40k (full disclaimer at end) but hopefully I can write good 40k fic. Read, hopefully enjoy, and review if you see fit... Chapter 1!

Confrontations in the Dark  
  
Inquisitor Daria marched through the dark of the underhive, scanning the darkness from behind the silver mask she wore. Her long hafted power weapon was held at rest on the shoulder of her carapace armor. The Inquistor was surrounded by her body guard, a trio of Adeptus Arbites wielding flamers and matching blue carapace armor. Just visible in the dim light were the out lines of gray clad storm troopers, ghosting forward over the small piles of moldering ruble. A noise drew her attention and she activated the scanners in her mask. The disturbing flickering thermal outlines of underhive scavies were suddenly visible to her augmented sight. She issued a single succinct command in a flat emotionless tone, "Kill the observers."  
Daria's command was transmitted to every stormtrooper under her command and a hail of hellgun fire rained down on the crouching mutants. Several dropped with piercing cries and the rest fled into the darkness of the tunnel ahead leaving their dead and wounded behind. One squad of stormtroopers rushed to the mutant's position and scanned the darkness for further targets as they executed the survivors. All was still for a moment and then Daria ordered the force to move forward. They entered the tunnel where water dripped onto the cratered floor amid the scurrying of nightmarish vermin and proceeded awhile in silence. Only the quiet hum of imperial issue rebreathers echoed off the walls as the inquisitorial force made their stealthy way forward. A light at the end of the tunnel marked the end of the monotonous silence. The babble of moaning voices, shouted commands, and earthing of wild energies indicated that the Inquisitor may have found her prey. With no noticeable change of expression behind her mask, Daria triggered her vox link and signaled the orbiting strike ship as she gestured for her troops to take firing position near the tunnel exit, "Inquisitor Daria, Contact# 142-830 to Strike ship Emperor's Justice. Inform the grandmaster that we have made contact with a sizable enemy force which may be our target. I will order the teleport homers lit if such is the case..."  
  
The room was dark and quiet; no decorations breaking the austere walls save for a plain bronze aquila. A massive figure knelt in the center of the room, his ornately engraved terminator armor painted a subdued ash gray color. He was helmetless so that the slight motion of his lips could be seen in the incense laden gloom. Before him lay a low altar, candles guttering from its surface, on it lay a massive golden bladed halberd and a shield with a twin pronged end. The near silence of the Grey Knight's vigil was broken as a hidden vox caster spoke, "Grandmaster Judeas, forgive my interruption but the strike force has signaled from the planet that they have encountered the enemy. Its size and composition seem to indicate that it could belong to your quarry. Inquisitor Daria will activate teleport homers if such proves to be the case." "Understood Captain. Signal alpha and delta squads that they are to meet in the teleport chamber for possible assault duty as soon as possible." "As you will, so it shall be." The vox unit deactivated with an audible crack.  
Judeas rose, murmured a final prayer and gathered his weapons, He picked up his helmet and twisted it into place, hiding his scarred features beneath the blank steel of the helm. His storm shield was slid over his arm until it locked into place. The halberd was reverently clutched in his shield hand as he strode to the door. Standing before the exit Judeas stated the phrase, "The Emperor protects." The door silently rose and Judeas passed into the hall which led to the teleportation chamber.  
  
Daria picked up her pace, breaking into a near run as the stormtroopers fanned out amid the rumble surrounding the tunnel exit. Wordlessly her trio of guardians kept up with her, the bright pilot lights of their flamers sparking to life as she stepped into the light of the cavity. The decaying concrete dome channeled light into the space from above, illuminating the scene before her all too clearly. Daria calmly took in the sight of the sea of mutants shambling toward their position and the sparking, hovering daemonhosts that shuddered and twitched in their heavy rune engraved chains. The worst sight she saw, the one that caused her eyes to narrow in anger, was the bloated figure in power armor wielding an ebony sword and cloaked in robes marked with a stylized I. The sacred mark of the Inquisition. Here was their prey, one of their own taken by the dark powers and turned to their fell purposes. He had to die before he could do more harm.  
As the first of the mutants shambled into weapons range, crude weapons clutched in their malformed limbs, hellgun shots lanced into their ranks. Daria gripped the haft of her weapon tightly as a sign of displeasure when merely a handful fell, the rest ignoring the impact of the lasweapons. One of the hovering daemonhosts vanished only to reappear far back in the tunnel behind them with a maniacal grin on its face. The chaos Inquisitor himself began to shout at his followers in a debased tongue while gesturing with his sword in the Daemonhounters' direction. The oratory was unintelligible to Inquisitor Daria's ears, but the speech fanned the mutants' eagerness into frenzy and they broke into a charge at her force. Daria tonelessly gave her orders, her voice heavy with controlled anger, "Activate teleport beacons. Our target is at hand and we must stand long enough for the Grey Knights to achieve their task. We fight in glory for we serve He who sits on Terra. Fight for the Emperor, may he stand forever." As the beacons were lit, the storm troopers, heartened by the prospect of the Grey Knights coming to their aid, eagerly responded, "For the Emperor!" The mutants were greeted with hails of fire as they closed.  
  
"By the Omnisiah and the Eternal Machine, bear these warriors across the void. 11010011101..." The tech priests continued to chat in binary over the spidery array that dominated one end of the iron black room and sent wiry tendrils all over the teleportation chamber. These tendrils terminated in great cages, studded in circuitry and other Adeptus Mechticanous paraphernalia. Two of these cages held gray armored marines, a pair of Grey Knight squads. One was clad in power armor and knelt in prayer, their halberds held upright and still. The other held a quintet of terminators, their massive forms clustered tightly together. Grandmaster Judeas was one of them. He glanced over his armored shoulders at his bodyguard. Their weapons gleamed with the freshness of new polish and the odor of incense wafted from their armor. The Grandmaster permitted himself a brief smile at the thought of such pious warriors fighting at his side.  
The tech priests' chantings took on a more frantic note as one priest, bearing a massive servo arm on his shoulder, called out, "Teleport beacons active. The machine spirit calls out to its father. Praise the Omnisiah as we bring its child to wakefulness. 00110001011011010..." The terminators stiffened slightly and Judeas led them in prayer as the weblike teleport array heated up around them. Halos of energy played off Judeas' armor and the techpriests' chant reached fever pitch. Then, a sudden flare of light flooded the chamber and the Grey Knight Terminators were gone. The remaining Grey Knights vanished shortly afterward and servo-skulls flocked down from the ceiling to inspect the cooling machine.  
  
In the underhive, mutants halted their rush as twin deafening cracks echoed throughout the dome. Grandmaster Judeas and his guards appeared before the leftmost stormtrooper squad, their armored forms towering over their human allies. Litanies of repugnance boomed from hidden speakers on their armor as they raised their storm bolters and sent a barrage of shells thundering into the nearest of the mutant mobs. Judeas merely gripped his golden bladed weapon more tightly as he sensed his target. The enemy Inquisitor looked uneasy at this latest arrival as he plotted how to stop this threat before it broke his army. The mutants stumbled back in stupification, at how these wraith armored killers had appeared before their eyes. As the terminators stepped forward, storm bolters still spitting death, the mutants ran, their courage shattered by the new arrivals.  
The other squad of newly arrived Grey Knights rose from their crouch and sent more bolt shells into the ranks of their opponents at the rightmost flank of the mutant mobs. The charge of a wailing daemonhost silenced their guns as they grimly began to hack at the figure with their Nemesis blades, sparks rising as the arcane energies clashed. The center of the line was anchored by Daria herself. Moving forward as bursts of hellgun fire shrieked past on either side of her small unit, Daria sent a bolt pistol shot into the skull of the nearest mutant as the roar of three flamers engulfed the mob. The leaders were devastated, a dozen lying scorched and burning, and the mass of deformed abhumans barely held its ground. The squad charged into assault, the Inquisitor swinging her humming power spear in great sweeping attacks that forced her opponents back. She smashed the butt end of her weapon into the face of her opponent and gutted him with the blade end as he reeled back in pain. She skillfully blocked and counter-attacked, adding two more wiry mutants to her toll before she stopped and gazed at the mutants with a challenging stance. As the mutants moved vengefully forward, her guardians formed a screen in front of her, using their heavy flamers as clubs to repel the feral attackers. One was gutted by a broken bar as Daria gathered her power, the psionic energy flickering around her. She pointed the spear like a focus and a holocaust of spectral flames erupted in the mutants' midst that caught one of her surviving guards and fried him from the inside. The mutants turned and ran leaving, the majority of their companions dead at the female Inquisitor's feet. Judeas ignored the battled around him as he hacked and slashed his way through the largest mob present on that battlefield. None of his guards had fallen, yet the mutants were so numerous that the terminators were isolated from one another, immoveable islands amid an angry sea. His blade steamed as the arcane weapon boiled away the blood that clung to its surface. The degenerates were more determined here, more reckless and heartened by the presence of their leader, the Grandmasters' target. They battered at his armor and he cut one of them one down with a backhanded swing of his weapon. He forced another handful back with a scything swing of his weapon as he brought the weapon to guard. The clatter of metal on metal rang as the mutants attacked the ash grey champion futilely once more. Growing incensed at their stubbornness, he impaled one mutant on the end of his shield, the razor prongs tearing twin wounds in its chest as he hauled it aloft. The wretch screamed pitifully until he ended its pain by crushing its skull where it lay. As the mutants finally broke and ran for shelter, leaving the way clear to their leader, Judeas glanced around and noted that one of his terminators lay dead. Overcome by the sheer number of his opponents, the Grey Knight had been a companion of centuries and his death grieved him, but he would not mourn while the traitor still lived. He called a catechism of challenge as his squad reformed and they ran at the chaos Inquisitor. Two of the traitor's foul daemonhosts still accompanied him and they leapt at the Grey Knights their blind hatred for their opponent's purity of soul blazing in their eyes. The traitor himself sought out Judeas, the power sword now blazing black flames. Judeas momentarily averted his gaze as his auto-filters engaged. He blocked with the shield and its latent power field flared to life as the traitor sought to cut his opponent down with the unnatural weapon. The storm of sparks lifted to find the Inquisitor impaled in the chest by Judeas' Nemesis force Halberd. The traitor twitched and shook as waves of golden flame rushed into his body as Judeas sought to crush his soul. The traitor poured every once of will he had against the force that sought to demolish the keystone of his psyche. The Grandmaster saw snippets of the traitor's lifetime as he gripped that which he sought with his mind and tore the Inquisitors soul out. There was a final flare of flame and a desiccated corpse fell off the golden blade of the massive weapon. Judeas knelt at the side of the slain daemonhosts and closed their eyes as he regained his strength. He looked down at the mutated victims with something akin to pity at their forced damnation. With his terminators looking at him silently, he rose and turned his mind to the battle once more. Coordinated fire from the power armored Grey Knights and surviving stormtroopers was cutting down the last of the mutants inclined to fight as the coldly regal blue armor of Inquisitor Daria gave pause to any foes who wished to stay. Grandmaster Judeas offered a brief prayer of gratitude to the Emperor before ordering his terminators to open fire on the fleeing mutants. His gray armor dimly reflected the light as they thunderously complied.  
  
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer 40k in any way, shape or form. That honor belongs to Games Workshop and I'm not contesting that. I don't intend to make any profit from this work and hope that it doesn't get sued. Please...


	2. A Pause in the Air

Chapter 2! Here's my disclaimer: I don't own Warhammer 40k in any way shape or form. That honor belongs to Games Workshop and I'm not contesting that! I don't intend to make any money from this and hope that this doesn't get me sued. Please... Different story, same characters, not bound to chapter one. Hope you enjoy.

A Pause in the Air  
by Wordbearer  
  
The _Emperor's Justice_ hung in orbit around the desolate world. The strike cruiser's predatory outline was only made more harsh by the stumpy form of the Munitorium transport that accompanied it. Grandmaster Judeas had come to the decision that moral support would be required if unacceptable levels of Grey Knight casualties were to be avoided. There was one solution to the meat-grinder of Imperial warfare that is always available and always expendable: The Penal Legions. Thus, the Emperor's Justice hung Tremonius, the most heavily populated of the Emperor's penal colonies. Inquisitor Daria had suggested the world herself.  
  
On the surface of Tremonius, Daria watched 3,000 convict soldiers from atop a cliff side observation post as they marched to their shuttles and headed for orbit. The thick clouds were periodically breached by ascending or descending shuttles and the air echoed with sonic booms. The lights of the observation post raised glare from Daria's blue armor and silver mask as she silently surveyed the gathering hoard of infantry. The small crowd of military attaches and officers sharing the room with her nervously awaited her response. One particularly bold officer, Lieutenant Craig, asked, "do the soldiers and equipment suit your purposes, Inquisitor?" "They will suit the purposes of my Ordo, well trained as they seem to be," said Daria aloud. She left the second half of her thought unspoken, "trained enough to die spectacularly and distractingly..." The Lieutenant laughed thinly at the assumed compliment though the monotone voice and mask prevented him from gauging its sincerity.  
  
Daria turned around suddenly, the motion resettling her hair onto her back and addressed the Lieutenant, "Has the prisoner been delivered to this location?" Unsettled by the nonsequitor, the officer stammered a moment before responding as an attaché handed him a data slate. Reading from the screen before him, "Prisoner #1804-36-626 has been transferred to maximum security cell #9638 at Gaol Primus under orders of Inquisitor Daria effective 276.M41." "Excellent," intoned the Inquisitor, her slight smile concealed under her mask. "I'll be seeing him now then." Striding toward the elevators and causing the attendant crowd to scatter like a flight of quail, she barely paused as she heard, "Inquisitor! Wait! Allow me to accompany you!" "Of course, Lieutenant. Bring a copy of the prisoner's dossier." Her carapace armor settling as she took her place in the elevator, Daria didn't react as Craig and two shotgun armed guards joined her in the gun metal grey chamber and they began their descent to cell #9638.  
  
The elevator shuddered to a halt and the doors opened revealing a long barren corridor carved from the rock and broken by heavy steel doors. The tunnel was intermittently lit by blinding floodlights, an inconvenience the Inquisitor's mask allowed her to adjust to. The guards led the way to one such door, unmarked and no different from the rest, making as to open it. "Wait," Daria called out, and the guard paused. Removing the mask from her face and wincing briefly as the silvery dendrites coiled back under her hair, she finished, "Now open it." One guard opened the door as the other trained his shotgun into the cell. The door opened and Daria saw a struggling male figure pulled into a kneeling position by a pair of handcuffs bound to cords which withdrew to a hole in the center of the floor.  
  
The Inquisitor raised an eyebrow at the spectacle and Lieutenant Craig was quick to respond, seemingly more disturbed by the judgmental cast of her beautiful features than by the inhuman mask she had been wearing. "It's a security precaution, Mam, to prevent the prisoner from attacking the food servitors." Circling around the orange clad prisoner who hadn't yet lifted his head, Daria inquired, "What has he done to require this level of restraint?" The prisoner looked up at the sound of her voice and his eyes widened as he caught sight of her blue cloak from the corner of his eye. As she moved behind him the Lieutenant responded, "According to his dossier, he was delivered here under inquisitorial authority. Before he was released onto the surface he escaped confinement and killed fourteen guards before being subdued. Inquisitorial orders forbid our killing him." Craig paused and looked at Inquisitor Daria suspiciously before continuing. "He was transferred to the training caverns in the hope that he could become penal legion material...However, there are at least 38 victims to his bloody, ritualistic murders during the three month stay and more secreted bodies are showing up. Eventually he was transferred to solitary confinement where he killed three servitors and was found worshipping over their entrails. He has been under omega level confinement for the last five months." He blinked as if he couldn't believe what he had just read.  
  
Daria's face was unreadable, a strange light gleaming in her grey eyes. Pulling a knife from her waist sheath she tossed the blue-hafted blade to the ground before the prisoner's eyes. He locked an intense stare on the weapon, light reflecting from his shaven head. "Release him from those restraints," the Inquisitor curtly ordered. Craig stammered while the guards tightened the grip on their shotguns, "What?" "Release him. I won't ask again." Nodding in fear, he voxed central control, "Deactivate restraints in cell in 9638." Silence, as whoever was at the other end commented back. He continued sharply, "Just do it. Inquisitor Daria's orders..." A moment later the restraints beeped and fell from the prisoner's wrists and ankles. Agilely he grabbed the knife and leapt backwards. Taking a crouched position, his eyes flashed from person to person. He divided his gaze between Daria's emotionless visage, the shotguns of the guards, and the lieutenant's confused glare. The tableau held a moment before the Inquisitor softly, yet clearly spoke the deadly words, "Execute the prisoner." The air was thick with untapped violence as the guards began to bring their weapons to bear.  
  
The prisoner seemed to blur, his orange jump suit leaving a trail as he leapt at the nearest guard and his knife bit into the man's neck between his helmet and chestplate. The blade sawed through the guard's spinal column as he pulled himself behind the fatally injured man. The other soldier fired his shotgun, but most of the blast was absorbed by his fallen comrade's corpse. Pulling his knife from the victim's neck, the prisoner came in low and sliced the upper leg of the other guard. The guard doubled over only for his gut to meet the knife which twisted cruelly as the prisoner moved on. The lieutenant, who had drawn his hellpistol by now, loosed a shot at the charging figure, but fear and the prisoner's preternatural grace caused him to miss. The lieutenant took a double palmed blow to the chest and was kicked into a rocky wall as he slumped into unconsciousness. Daria had barely moved when she found herself in a choke-hold, the prisoner's shaven chin flush with the shoulder of her carapace armor and his shoulders buried in her thick brown hair.  
  
Daria whispered her voice calm despite the fact that the prisoner could snap her neck at any moment, "Why haven't you killed me yet?" "You die, I die," came the gravelly response from a voice long unused. They both glanced at the frag grenade clenched in her fist, the spring driven spoon depressed by her thumb. "Is it the place of an assassin of the Blades of the Emperor Rampant to fear death, Amahel?" Daria sounded almost challenging and he responded, "To die in the Emperor's service is a holy thing, but to die from an oversight is a crime in the eyes of the Emperor if by doing so you weaken the faith without need." He sounded reverent as he spoke and released Daria from the choke-hold. Daria deactivated the grenade in return, turning to face the long imprisoned death cult assassin who massaged his shoulder with his left hand.  
  
"Why didn't you kill him?" Daria was pointing at Lieutenant Craig, who was bleeding from the back of his head but still breathing. Amahel responded, "It is as much a sin to glut the Emperor's soul as it is to deny the Vulture Lord of Terra his due. Thus..." "Take but a single soul for Him each day if His foes are at rest," Daria finished the quotation aloud and continued, "Third book of Expurgation, verse XXVII. I've missed you during your enforced absence." Amahel stood at attention, his expression unchanging, "It has been a long time. I hunger to do the Emperor's work. The corruption is weak here and unworthy of my presence." "Quite true," she replied, thinking back to the long list of victims and the bodies of sacrificed inmates that were yet to be discovered by the colonial authorities. The gut stabbed guard writhed and began to cough up blood, causing Inquisitor Daria to pull out her bolt pistol and finish him off by shooting him in the head. As the blast echoed down the tunnel, the Inquisitor calmly stated, "Finish your rites, Amahel. I'll be arranging for your release into my service. Don't forget the knife. It was yours originally and I favor my spear." The assassin nodded distractedly as he began carving up the flesh of one of the guards in the complex manner of his brotherhood. Turning around the Inquisitor crouched and grabbed the lieutenant's vox. Walking out of the cell and into the corridor she thought, "Tremonius will provide a rich harvest indeed. Grand Master Judeas will get his cannon fodder penal legion soldiers and I, I get my assassin."

So you made it down here. What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? Leave a review if you see fit and I hope you don't regret reading this. Thank you for your time.


	3. Twisting Paths to Victory

Chapter 3 to my Daemonhunter's piece. A tad more talky, but but hopefully still good. Disclaimer: I don't own Warhammer 40k in any way, shape or form. That honor belongs to Games Workshop and I have no intent of challenging them. I don't want to make a profit form this and hope that this doesn't get me sued... Please enjoy!

Twisting Paths to Victory

By Wordbearer2

Inside the strike cruiser, the Emperor's Justice, there was a starkly lit chamber with light reflecting from its padded walls. The walls were white as were its furnishings: a bed welded to the floor, a small absolutory, and a scanning array mounted high in one corner. The minute whirring of its servos matched the breathing of the room's sole occupant. He was clad in a black body glove and knelt in the center of the room, his breathing slow and heavy. His head was bowed as drugs pumped through his veins, keeping him sedated. The man's firm lithe muscles rippled as his head turned in response to the squeal of hinges. His features, scarred by implants, locked onto the grey faces of a trio of servitors as they entered his cell bearing his arms.

Fear blossomed briefly in his one human eye before a new dose of sedative caused him to slump to his knees. The first servitor strapped a harness over his chest and back, reverently hooking grenades to the golden accessory. The servitor's hands trembled as the remnants of its central nervous system urged it to flee. The next servitor hooked a power pack to the man's back and ran a cable under his arm and into a transformer on the front of the harness. The last servitor, bearing a large ornate helm with bone white fittings and one enormous pupil, placed it on the man's shaven skull. The click of connecting ports and servos was muffled by the walls as he shuddered under a new dose of drugs. The servitors withdrew before the Culexus Assassin swung his skull faced helm around and rose to his feet.

Elsewhere, Inquisitor Daria was silent as the shuttle dispatched from the Emperor's Justice rattled and shook its way through the last of the atmospheric turbulence. She was unmasked, her thick brown hair framing a face that would have been beautiful had it not been for the look of intolerance in her grey eyes. Her gaze dashed over to her pair of guardians, blue armored soldiers wielding heavy shot guns as they reverently inspected their weapons. The trio was inbound to the summer palace of Theoginus Rex, governor of Orion VI. Her ship, the Emperor's Justice, was in orbit around this simple productive garden world because Daria had suspicions as to its purity. The shuttle suddenly decelerated and she reached for her silver mask, slipping the accessory over her face as dendrites writhed out from beneath her hair and linked with the metallic relic.

The shuttle landed shortly thereafter, the thump of its feet passing through the passenger's cabin. The back ramp opened and Daria tilted her head in silent communication at the bodyguards as she disembarked. The Inquisitor's blue carapace armor reflected the sun brightly as she walked across the concrete landing pad at the heart of the palace. A nervous chamberlain welcomed her as she entered the shade entrance, "Inquisitor Daria! We were not expecting you until sometime later. I must apologize for the lack of ...."

She quelled him with a scornful glance through one of her yellow mask lenses, "Just take me to the governor. We have the Emperor's business to discuss." Her voice was a flat dangerous monotone and the chamberlain hastened to comply.

The halls of the palace were full of bustling servants who blanched at the sight of the stylized eye engraved on the armor of Daria and her guard. She left a trail of silent, shaken menials in her wake as the chamberlain led them to a sun soaked audience chamber where a thin grey haired man chatted agreeably with peacock clad nobles. A quartet of servitor musicians continued to play as the doors opened and Daria strode in shadowed by her guards, the fabric of her cloak waving behind her. The gossiping crowd fell silent as they took in the ominous new arrival.

The Inquisitor glanced at the servitors and someone hurriedly deactivated these lobotomized servants. The governor loudly greeted the Inquisitor, "Inquisitor Daria, how nice to see that someone knows how to make a flashy entrance." His smile was thin and brittle with the knowledge that no visit from an Inquisitor could be entirely good. The crowd of nobles laughed at Theoginus' jest, a nervous sound that she let wash over her before replying.

"I am not here to exchange pleasantries," she bluntly stated, "I have come to discuss a matter of great importance with the governor of Orion VI and will need some of his time." She looked pointedly at the crowd of nobles and her bodyguards began to edge them out of the room with shotguns at the ready. The governor looked mildly put out but remained silent as the Inquisitor continued, "Alone." The dignitary reluctantly dismissed his ornately uniformed guards and the two inquisitorial soldiers herded them out before sealing the doors behind them. Daria was left alone with the governor of Orion VI in the expansive room.

Back in orbit, the drop pod tumbled through the void, occasionally nudged along a new vector by its jets. The pod was encased in heavy shielding that reflected the glare of a torpedo launch from the Emperor's Justice. The torpedo flared like a newborn star and a wave of electronic noise swept over the southern hemisphere of Orion VI. The planet's defensive weapons were now effectively blinded. The drop pod now acted, an explosion of light driving it toward the atmosphere as its human cargo was cushioned by thick padding. The pod burned its way onto the surface of the southernmost continent of Orion VI and sent a sonic boom echoing down a narrow valley.

The noise stirred PDF sentries in the valley who gazed alertly into the darkness. They were assigned to defend a small bunker and nervously looked at the smoking trail that rose out of the forest to the north of them. The lieutenant dispatched one of his squads to investigate even as he roused the rest of his soldiers. In the forest the now blackened drop pod and the form of the Culexus Assassin was momentarily silhouetted by the pulsing red emergency lights. The figure moved swiftly out of the impact crater and the black body suit helped it to vanish into the darkness. The assassin slipped around the nervous PDF squad and into sight of the bunker without incident. The oversized iris of the assassin's helm spiraled open and glowed blue as the Culexus prepared to spring its trap.

In the now near empty room, Inquisitor Daria addressed the governor, her voice monotone but her stance conveying her tension. "Governor Theoginus Rex, as you know, I am a representative of the Inquisition. What you don't know, what very few others know outside my order, is that I am a representative of the Ordo Malleus: an ordo dedicated to the destruction of the daemonic." Theoginus shuddered at the mention of the fell-handed bogeymen of the Imperium as the Inquisitor continued, "We must seek out daemons wherever they dwell, for to let one child of Chaos escape is to doom one thousand worlds to damnation. It does not matter how they hide, or how many innocents die to ensure their destruction. It is in this vein that I execute you and commend your soul to the Emperor's keeping."

With this final phrase she pulled out a simple slim needle pistol and pointed it at the Governor who stammered, "Wha....Wha...Why are you doing...." Daria fired twice, the shots disappearing into the Governor's chest. The Governor gasped, turned blue and fell to his knees as the poison took effect. Daria closed her eyes in concentration and a nimbus of eldritch fire gathered around her before she held out her hand. An explosion shattered the window as the power she had gathered explosively immolated the still body of the former governor of Orion VI. Daria never took her eyes from the charred corpse, the lenses of her silver mask darkening in response to the glare that reflected off her mask and armor.

She continued to hold out her hand, apparently unsurprised as the charcoal black corpse that had been Theoginus rose to its feet and the mystic flames were absorbed into its form. The figure laughed through cracked lips as it swelled, the char peeling off like sunburned skin. The flesh that lay beneath was pale and wet with a texture like rotten leather. Its face split to reveal a multitude of eyes and a trio of fleshy whip-like dreadlocks erupted from its back. Its knees bent backward with brittle snaps as bird-like claws burst out of its feet. "I must thank you," it chortled as if flexed its newly sprouted talons and attained its full height of ten feet, "you have freed me from the pathetic vessel where I had to hide myself. While Theoginus was an amusing refuge from your kind, I was growing bored with inhabiting his hapless husk."

Daria responded, loathing clear in her voice as her hatred for the foul being before her overcame her training. "I did not free you to amuse you, abomination. I seek your banishment and eventual destruction. This is the only way to ensure that end."

Amusement rippled the daemon prince's dreadlocks and it spoke, "How do you intend to accomplish that, little Inquisitor? You have no more chance against me than Sanguinius against Horus!" Acidic spit splattered the ground as it laughed and Daria activated a small device on her belt. Moments later a thunderous clap silenced the daemon as Grandmaster Judeas teleported into the room, clad in his slate grey terminator armor. He raised his golden bladed halberd in challenge at the towering daemonic warpspawn.

On the southrenmost continent, the darkness of the night was broken as the assassin sprinted out of the cover of the trees toward the first of the barricades where the remaining PDF squad crouched. Glowing bursts of psychotropic energy blew one soldier's head from his shoulders before his squad mates could respond. Lasgun fire scorched the ground as a heavy bolter was brought to bear. The assassin dodged out the way as it closed, the oversized helm no hindrance. A hail of shells tore up the ground with a continuous roar, one shell ripping a bloody hole in the black clad figure's chest.

The assassin ignored the wound, a second burst of energy cutting down two more guardsmen as the figure powered over the barricade. A kick left one guardsman dead, and the assassin twisted the head of another with a forceful open palmed blow. The soldiers fled from this nightmarish assailant, unresponsive to their commander's cries. The assassin advanced on the bunker, seeming to gain energy the closer it got to the grim building. The lieutenant rushed at the assassin only to halt as the nauseating aura emanated by the figure unnerved him. Its very stance conveying contempt, the Culexus powered its helm a third time and the seemingly endless hail of shots left the lieutenant and his command squad a charred wreck. The threat disposed of, the Culexus assassin made its way into the bunker.

Back in the palace, the daemon prince took an involuntary step backwards as the Grand Master's battle prayer echoed off the walls of the room, "In the name of the Most Holy Emperor I banish you from the face of His world! The fire of his torch burns thy soul and removes your unholy presence. It is He who binds you and renders you impotent."

Resisting the force of Judeas' prayer, the daemon roared back in its twisted native tongue, "Th'chinal ak'marnicuqui zetch' morq e'non..." Its deep voice splinted as it spoke, becoming a chorus of voices that encompassed the spectrum of humanity, a chorus of lost souls. Unholy issued forth from its form to envelop the Grand Master, hiding him from sight.

Daria closed her eyes, the mask's filter overcome by the foul radiance. When the flames died though, Judeas was unharmed and charged the towering beast, his weapons agleam. The daemon narrowed its many eyes and swung downward with a massive hand, only to roar in pain as the halberd bit into its forearm. Judeas swung the glaive again only to find it blocked by a shimmering energy field. Grinning madly, the daemon clutched Judeas with its lasing dreadlocks and threw the grey knight into Theoginus' throne causing him to lose his grasp on his long-hafted Nemesis weapon. The throne crumbled under the impact and Judeas got his feet heavily, only to find the daemon poised above him, desperate needle pistol shots deflecting off its force-field. "Did you the think that a daemon prince of Tzeentch would be caught unprepared by your assault?" It grabbed the fallen nemesis weapon and threw it away, "I've arranged matters so that I have all the power that I require."

Judeas thought to himself underneath his continual battle mantra as he robotically blocked strikes with his shield, "Emperor willing, that will no longer be the case quite soon."

At the same time and half a world away, the Culexus assassin entered the confines of the bunker and sealed the door behind him. Immediately the noise of the outdoors faded and the sounds of respirators and other life support equipment filled the air. A dozen life support pods stood before him, each containing a twitching psyker. Blasphemous runes marked their skin and the equipment of the chamber, a trail of them snaking their way across the floor to an obscene icon that dominated one wall. Power fed from the pods and into the Tzeentchen icon in cancerous waves.

The assassin ignored the icon, its attention taken up by the psykers who were beginning to react to its fearful presence. They thrashed against the sides of their pods, desperate terror spreading from victim to victim as the Culexus took in the chamber. It suddenly acted, a thunderous barrage of psychotropic bolts slaying four of the psykers in moments. It rolled a plain grey cylindrical grenade between two other pods. The assassin ignored the shower of sparks and the subsequent odor of burnt flesh as it drove a fist into a pod and clutched the pallid flesh of young psyker. The girl tried to scream around the airtube in her throat as the flesh melted from her body and stained the blue fluids leaking from the pod a murky brown. Withdrawing his arm from the pod, the assassin seemed almost giddy as it turned to the five surviving psykers. The icon began to wither as its energy supply was cut off. Consumed by his frenzied slaughter, the Culexus assassin was unaware of the role he played in ridding Orion VI of the Tzeentchen horror that depended so much on the energy harvested by the icon. Psychotropic fire burned once more in the bunker.

The palace walls groaned as Judeas struggled to block the daemon prince's blows with his storm shield, back pressed against the wall by the reeking mass of the daemon. His armor was scoured by the lashing blows of the dreadlocks and acid holes pitted his armor. The daemon's claws were blocked by the shield and a flare of light glared. Again light flared as the storm shield intercepted an overhand swat. Daria unleashed the eldritch fire storm against the beast only to have flaring power flow off it like water.

The Grandmaster was attempting to move around the beast when it seemed to falter and then backed away keening in pain. The daemon's force-field flickered and died as its flesh writhed like a nest of snakes. Judeas hurriedly reclaimed his fallen Nemesis weapon, uttering a brief canticle of contrition in apology to his weapon's spirit. The daemon straightened and turned to face its Ordo Malleus opponents. Daria fired the needle pistol and the needle created a purple bruise that swelled and burst like a dam holding back flood waters.

The daemon prince powered forward on its backward jointed legs, arms wide and dreadlocks lashing as it sought to deal with these troublesome foes. Judeas met that charge, planting the butt of his nemesis force halberd into the tile. The blade penetrated the daemon's softened flesh. Judeas sought the daemon prince's link to this world with his will and the daemon's distracted mind was no match for him. The towering daemon bled light from every pore before bursting into a flaming mass that boiled away into the air even as it stilled. The room echoed to the reverent words of the Thorian psalms as the Grandmaster knelt to offer the Emperor gratitude for this victory. Inquisitor Daria wordlessly looked on.

So you made it down here. What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't Care? Leave a review if you see fit. Thank you for your time.


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